When creative juices start flowing, there's no way of knowing where they'll be heading and this ecclectic mix will also be reflected in the contents of this blog. So fasten your seatbelt and let me take you on a journey along ATCs, bookthongs, jewelry and many other things ... Enjoy !

Surfing on the website of mirkwood designs , I had already seen the template to make fans but somehow I didn't dare to jump in at the deep end. Trying something new always requires some pondering for me ...

I got the little push I needed when I saw a fan swap on swap-bot. I contacted the host to get some information and as this would be my very first fan ever, she offered to set up a private swap, so I could get the hang of it.

The theme was free so (as usual) it ended up quite asian looking (I wanted to say "oriental", but after reading the comments section of this swap here I opted for the safer sounding "asian", after all I wouldn't want to offend anyone).

So this is it, my very first fan. I used washi paper I bought in the Tagawa store, gold embossing powder on stamped images of sakura and Japanese text, a golden coloured bird and goldlined red ribbon. In retrospect I think I should have used more blades but this one will do for now I guess. I just hope my partner will appreciate this one. From what I understand she uses all the fans she has to decorate a wall : I hope she likes red and gold :o)

I became really hooked with this zentangle thing, don't let anyone tell you they're not addictive :o)

I joined a swap on swapbot for handdrawn black and white ATCs (send by date is end of August but I decided to start early) and since zentangles are allowed, I made these 4 ATCs yesterday.

These were fun to make so I'm sure that my zentangle ATC series will go on for quite some time (just like the Japanophilia series).

Today I will be working on a decorated fan that I have to send for a private swapbot swap. I guess that the result of this crafting will be the subject of my next post.

I have a week off from work this week as our office is closed for annual holidays, so I'll have plenty of time to do some crafting and catch up with my long overdue penpal letters. I also bought a book about beading this weekend, and I am eager to go to the beads shop and get some supplies to try some of the models I found in this book.

I'm also expecting my order from skybluepink to arrive this week with the charms, the bottlecaps and all the other trinkets I ordered. I received a lovely bottlecap pin but I haven't taken a picture of it yet. I definetely want to try this too. Oh, so many ideas spinning around in my head.

After having read all about zentangles, I decided to give this a try. While looking at them on the net, they seemed very complex but in the end they are quite easy to do (although they are time consuming). And I can confirm that these little doodling things can become very addictive. Proof : I started yesterday and I already made four of them :o)

The zentangle site sells a kit for $50 (special diecut vellum cotton paper, sakura pens and some other gadgets), but these ones are made on normal heavy weight drawing paper using staedler drawing pens (0,1 an 0,05).

Although zentangles aren't supposed to represent anything according to the "theory", everyone I showed the zentangles to kept asking "What is this supposed to represent?".

So to please my relatives, I tried a different approach : no abstract organic lines and curves, but an animal (at least what was the purpose). With some imagination you might see one of Dumbo's cousins in the top left corner of the mosaic :o)

Apparently my years of doodling while on the phone have had some results. My next move will be a zentangle composition I guess : lines flowing though several zentangles to create a harmonious whole.

I just discovered this great website with lots of gadgets for your blog : Blogthings.com. It contains a lot of useless but fun quizzes.

Here are the result of some of the tests I took :

1. Are you an attention whore?

You Are An Attention Seeker

You're only human, so you can't help but want a little attention every now and then.You love the spotlight, but only when it's well deserved. You'd hate to be known for the wrong thing.And you also don't mind sharing the spotlight. You can easily give someone else credit or a complement.You know there's enough attention to go around, and it makes you happy when your friends shine.You come across as: Friendly and interestingPeople may wrongly think you're: A little more modest than you actually are!

Vanilla, yes, but definitely not boring.You are subtly complex and deeply sophisticated.You're the type of person who has always been ahead of their time.You don't fall for gimmicks or tricks. You are drawn to what's true.

I returned to the bead shop yesterday and seeing me there 3 times in as many days, convinced the shop keeper to give me a fidelity card :o) 7 more purchases and I'll receive a discount of 5% on the amount spent.

As the thongs I made this weekend already left my hands (sent out in swaps or grabbed by a relative), I made four new ones yesterday which appear in the picture browser of the previous post. Two of them have already found new owners too (both blue ones) and I guess the other ones won't stay too long in my company neither.

Meanwhile, summer has returned to the country and with the long days and the sunshine, my eager to try out new things has also emerged from its wintersleep. This weekend I tried out something new : book thongs ! Below an overview of the 4 I made.

Three of them are meant to be sent out in swaps (to the UK, US and Oz) and I intended to keep the red one for myself. Intended because when I showed off my "creations" to my mom she "confiscated" it. I should see this as a compliment, she wouldn't have grabbed this thong if she didn't like it ... but now I have to make myself another one. At the same time, several friends who had a look at them asked for a personal thong too. I know what I'll be doing next weekend :o) If I start going to this new bead store I discovered on a regular basis, maybe I can ask for a discount card (which would be most welcome considering the price of these little beads).